Microsoft has announced today that long-time employee and current president of their Business Division Jeff Raikes will retire from the company in September. Raikes, who currently presides over one of the three major divisions comprising the company, has been at Microsoft since 1981 and is perhaps best known for overseeing the growth of Office from a minor irritant to Lotus and Wordperfect into the dominant productivity software platform in information technology today. Originally coming from Apple, Raikes has provided a breath of fresh air from time to time in his tenure at Microsoft, perhaps most notably with his hard-headed assessment of the project then labeled "Longhorn" which was to become Microsoft Vista... a prediction that has been, unfortunately for Microsoft, all too accurate.

This is the third significant departure announced from Microsoft in as many days, following on the heels of Bruce Jaffe, M&A chief, and Charles Fitzgerald, General Manager of Platform Strategy, and considering Bill's upcoming departure this summer, it may not be so surprising. The end of the tenure of such a significant personality at any corporation is bound to engender similar considerations among other staff, and Microsoft stands at something of a corporate cross-roads today anyway... also a traditional time of soul-searching and turnover. If it is not a wonderful time for the company to have to deal with the loss of so many important managers, it may also provide some of the freedom and agility required to make some of the significant strategic and operational changes which must be made to stay ahead of the market. Todd Bishop quotes an internal e-mail from Ballmer at length on his blog which has some hints that these changes may already be under way.